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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A rookie actor from the Twin Cities — who is relatively unknown right now — is about to become very famous starting next week.

Barkhad Abdi was chosen as a lead actor in the latest Tom Hanks movie, Captain Phillips. It’s about the young Somali pirates who overtook an American-based cargo ship in 2009, a hostage ordeal that gripped the nation for days.

When Sony Pictures set out to tell the story, it sent the casting director to Minneapolis, home of the largest Somali immigrant population in the U.S. At the time, Abdi was working as a limo driver and had never acted before.